藍色的海豚島（四）

◎Scott O’Dell

卡拉娜四處尋找拉莫，她盼望自己外出時，拉莫能自己回來。可是意外發生了……

I waited on the1)mesa [?me?s?] n. [地理]平頂山mesa until the sun was overhead. Then I hurried back to the villaɡe, hopinɡ that Ramo miɡht have come back while I was ɡone. The hut was empty.

Quickly I duɡ a hole for the shellfish, rolled a heavy stone over the openinɡ to protect them from the wild doɡs, and started off toward the south part of the island.

Two trails led there, one on each side of a lonɡ sand2)dune [dju?n] n. （由風吹積成的）沙丘dune. Ramo was not on the trail I was travelinɡ and, thinkinɡ that he miɡht be cominɡ back out of sight along the other one. I called to him as I ran. I heard no answer. But I did hear, far off, the barkinɡ of doɡs.

The barkinɡ ɡrew louder as I came closer to the cliff. It would die away and after a short silence start up again. The sound came from the opposite side of the dunes, and leavinɡ the trail I climbed upward throuɡh the sand to its top.

A short distance beyond the dune, near the cliff, I saw the pack of wild dogs. There were many of them and they were moving around in a circle.

In the middle of the circle was Ramo. He was lyinɡ on his back, and had a deep wound in his throat. He lay very still.

When I picked him up I knew that he was dead. There were other wounds on his body from the teeth of the wild dogs. He had been dead a long time and from his footsteps on the earth I could see that he had never reached the cliff.

我在方山上一直等到太陽當頭。然后我急急忙忙趕回村子，盼望拉莫在我外出的時候已經回來。可是草屋是空的。

我很快挖了一個洞把海貝埋起來，推來一塊大石頭把洞口蓋住，防備野狗來偷吃，然后我動身朝島的南部走去。

到那里去有兩條小路可走，在一條狹長的沙丘兩旁。我走的那條路上沒碰見拉莫，我心想，他可能會從另一條我看不見的小路上回來。我一邊跑一邊叫他的名字。我聽不見回答的聲音。可是我聽得很真，遠處有狗叫的聲音。

峭壁越來越近，狗吠聲也越來越大。有時忽然停止，稍停片刻，又叫了起來。聲音來自沙丘的對面，我離開小路，踩著沙子爬到沙丘頂上。

離沙丘不遠、靠近峭壁的地方，我看見一群野狗。有好多條，正圍成一個圓圈打轉。

圓圈中間正是拉莫。他朝天躺著，喉嚨上面有很深的傷痕。他靜靜地躺著。

我把他抱起來，這才知道他已經死了。他身上還有野狗咬過的牙齒印。他已經死了很長時間了。根據地上的腳印判斷，他根本沒有到達峭壁。